Derek Lowe's commentary on drug discovery and the pharma industry. An editorially independent blog from the publishers of Science Translational Medicine. All content is Derek’s own, and he does not in any way speak for his employer.

Posts tagged with "Snake Oil"

Aging and Lifespan

Several people have sent me a link to Elysium Health, and I can’t say that it’s improved my morning. This is a supplement company founded by (among others) Leonard Guarente of MIT, who is of course well-known for his work in the study of longevity and aging. The company advertises a large and impressive board of… Read More

Snake Oil

I get sent links to some pretty egregious snake oil pitches, and the constant flow of them is always a source of (rueful) amazement. You can be amazed at how many different come-ons there are, and by how some of them just keep coming back around, again and again. The “amazing wonder water” pitch usually… Read More

Cancer

According to this article, Stanslaw Burzynski is again in legal trouble because of his “cancer clinic”. I last wrote about him a few years ago, but never fear, he’s been extracting money from desperate patients the whole time. Here’s a detailed look at what he’s been up to, and it isn’t pretty. As this new… Read More

Biological News

I wanted to highlight this post at Five Thirty Eight, because it makes an important point about something that chemists, biologists, and MDs get to hear a lot about: nutritional science. Headlines have been produced for decades about how you should eat this superfood, and avoid that toxic one, and how this berry will protect… Read More

Snake Oil

This paper has gotten a good amount of attention lately, as one might expect. It’s a social-science study, designed to try to understand the traits of people who are (more) susceptible to impressive-sounding empty phrases, but it wouldn’t have gotten as much notice if it hadn’t been titled “On the Reception and Detection of… Read More

Regulatory Affairs

Here’s an article right across the way here at Science on the contamination problems with dietary supplements. This industry, though, is set up perfectly for this kind of trouble under US law (see below), and it happens constantly. (The law also throws the doors wide open for scam artists of every kind, and we get them by… Read More

Snake Oil

I truly enjoyed this look at Dr. Robert David Perlmutter of “Grain Brain” fame, another branch of the same intellectual family tree as Drs. Mercola and Oz. Wonderful cures! Suppressed by evil forces! Under our noses all along! Exactly the opposite of the wonderful cures claimed by the same guy in the 1990s. . .uh… Read More

Snake Oil

Ah, the dietary supplement industry. Where faked-up ads blatantly rip off every big media organization you can name, and claim that all sorts of billionaires and celebrities take the wonder pills. But they’ve never heard of the stuff. And all sorts of writers and reporters get their names added to the fakery, but they’ve never… Read More

Snake Oil

You’ll have heard that a group of physicians has written a public letter to Columbia University asking why Dr. Oz is still on the faculty there. Here’s the text, and it includes some heartwarming stuff: . . .We are surprised and dismayed that Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons would permit Dr. Mehmet Oz… Read More

Snake Oil

Here’s a good article at Vox about what to do with idiots like the Food Babe and Dr. Oz. (OK, perhaps he just plays an idiot on TV, but by this point you have to wonder). Like any scientist with any sort of public platform, I’ve wondered about this, too. Bash them over the head… Read More